According to Sun Tianwen, chief designer at Shanghai Hip-pop Architectural Decoration Design Co., Northeast China is at its most “beautiful and romantic” during snowfall. “We wanted to freeze-frame this moment forever in the restaurant,” he says of his latest project, Waku Haiku Setsugekka. To achieve this, he divided the 14,000-square-foot streamlined Japanese eatery into four minimalist dining rooms marked by blue, pink, or yellow to reference the different seasons. Bordered by vivid LED lights, glass partitions are engraved with cherry blossoms, which viewed from a distance recall a snowy scene, while transparent tables are illuminated in an orange-red “to enhance the diner’s appetite,” he says. Lighting remains the most essential aspect to the project, meant “to express traditional Japanese Zen in a new way.”